20th of July was a very special day, beside 40th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death we had our own tiny paper-wedding ceremony. Chinese people have their own names for wedding anniversaries, very similar to the one from my country:
纸婚 – paper wedding (1st)
木婚 – wood wedding (5th)
锡婚 – tin wedding (10th)
水晶婚 – crystal wedding (15th)
搪瓷婚 – china wedding (20th)
银婚 – silver wedding (25th)
珍珠婚 – pearl wedding (30th)
珊瑚婚 – coral wedding (35th)
红宝石婚 – ruby wedding (40th)
蓝宝石婚 – sapphire wedding (45th)
金婚 – golden wedding (50th)
翠玉婚 – emerald wedding (55th)
钻石婚 – diamond wedding (60th)
Does it mean they have their traditions? Apparently NO. At least no one from my husband’s family, friends or co-workers knew about. Couldn’t find on the internet either. Why? Because it’s not something people used to celebrate. 99 days after being born, banquets every 10 years when you get old, big wedding ceremonies but no marriage anniversaries.
I guess we could make a joke ‘there’s nothing to be happy about in married life’, but it’s just actually what Western culture brought to East. I can almost hear those swearing Asian guys how we brought trouble in their life. Believe me, I met many male friends, I heard and read enough complaining about ‘Why my girlfriend wants to celebrate 77 days after we met?’, ‘Who invented that crap?’ – beside living pressure many Asian men have that family-flat pressure: they need to work hard to make girl happy, to make her family happy, if his family doesn’t have a flat he might have problems getting married – I was shocked first, but guys who read my blog, don’t you agree? All those things might take away pleasure from dating… But I’m happy more and more girls get rational about living together, they are not princesses celebrating every week of being together by asking guy to get her something and support them. Let’s destroy Hong Kong Princess Stereotype (公主病) :)!
And to take our pressure away and feel like very young couple we went to Santa Cruz! By going I mean stuck in a traffic for more than hour and spending 40 minutes looking for a parking spot. But it was worth it – beautiful ocean, lots of fun. Gave us a lot of energy. We met ridiculously photogenic (probably) sea lion, took few rides, won coupons worth 6 and 1/2 candy and had amazing time. Prices were OK, especially if you had a daily pass, if no then it’s from 3 to 6 USD/person per attraction. Made me think a little bit of Ocean Park, but it has no match to it.
We are very simple couple – get joy from daily things, that’s why we’ve decided to spend it this way. Our fancy meal ended as Little Caesars pizza combo and fighting over bread sticks.
I know one years is nothing, just a beginning, but I can proudly say, even thought some people couldn’t believe – WE MADE IT!
Thank you for all previous wishes, we really appreciated them. If you want to check out the movies from our small trip go to my facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Hong-Kong-husband/147980925392373
there is a Cantonese song also called 紙婚 by Hacken Lee, thought you might be interested! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uij8k4x-k7o
LikeLike
thank you so much, I think I heard it once or twice 🙂
LikeLike